Black Butte Porter | Deschutes Brewery

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Appearance: Very dark brown with a clinging tan lace that seems to stay for a while.

Smell: Mildly sweet in the nose with hints of charcoal, roasted malts and a touch of hops.

Taste: Silky smooth with a nice medium bodied mouth feel. After the luscious mouth feel come the flavour which is quite malty ... light acidic twang from the roasted malts, a little dark roasted coffee flavour and an underlying toasted biscuit taste are balanced with a perfect combo of hop and roasted malt bitterness. The lingering after taste is of faded burnt sugar, drying grain and a slightly warming alcohol. A wonderful yet delicate hop character helps to round this brew also.

Notes: Oh baby! There are good porters and then there are great porters ... this one goes down as a great one, no doubt!

Black Butte pours a dark deep brown color with a nice deep mahogany hue. I can just barely see through it. The head started off at about a finger-tall in a pint glass and receded to a hazy, dark tan film quickly. The lacy is fairly sticky and has the look of splashing water.

The smell of the Black Butte is glorious. A perfect blend of roasted and chocolate malt aromas waft out of the glass. There is just a faint hint of nuttiness in there, as well. It is a deep and velvety aroma.

Hmm, the the roasted malt flavors are the most prominent flavor at first taste, perhaps accentuated by a subtle pine hop taste. Also in the profile is a bit of burnt toast and coffee. There are a good amount of chocolate flavors in there, too, but the roasted malt tastes win. I wonder if the two flavors would marry better if this bottle aged more? The aftertaste of this brew is quite nice- a slightly chocolately, coffee-like acidic remnant.

The mouthfeel is solid. A bit of acidic astrigency rides the sides of my palate and back of my tongue throughout the sip, while the mellower, medium body emerges in the middle of the sip. The finish has that little bit of acidic pucker that I mentioned previously.

Overall, I think this beer hits the mark extremely well for the style. I generally tend to like slightly fuller, richer porters, but for a 5.2% a.b.v. porter, this is very well-crafted.

T: A soft hit of flavors that starts of roasted and chocolaty with a moderatly-low toffee sweetness that develops into an off-dry, roasty finish developing. There is a medium-low hops bitterness and a low earth hops flavor. The balance is about even with maybe a bit more bitterness from the combination of roast and hops bitterness. Some dark dried fruit.

M: A very creamy, medium bodied beer with a medium-strong level of carbonation. There is a very light roast astringency which is fine for the style.

O: A roasty, complex beer with an excellent balance of flavors. The cream soft mouthfeel is a stand out amazing quality of this beer.

Poured from the tap into a pint glass. The appearance is a dark brown color with a medium sized tan colored head. The aroma is a fantastic blend of roasted malt and cocoa. the flavor is rich and full and is a perfect match for the appearance and aroma. The taste is roasted malt with cocoa and coffee as an aftertaste. This is one of the best beers I have ever had.

Black Butte Porter | Deschutes Brewery. Poured from the bottle into a pint glass, this beer's head is three fingers thick, with solid lacing, and an otherworldly dark brown body.

Smells like subtle yet pleasant notes of milk chocolate and dare I say,cappuccino? Please let me know if I'm insane for thinking its that and not just the garden variety"coffee" I and all of you have used to describe porters and stouts countless times. But if I am insane for thinking that,yes, this DOES smell like cappuccino, then please let me see what this tastes like before I'm in a straightjacket....

I taste semisweet chocolate, roasted malts, and, yep, muthafuckin' cappuccino! If I get taken away for being a complete loon for thinking such outrageous-ness, please let me have a few of these once in a while.

The mouthfeel I'm picking up is medium-heavy and velvety smooth. Very light on the carbonation;as a porter should be.

Overall, I'll choose to rate Black Butte Porter | Deschutes Brewery with a very well-deserved 4.75. Please try to pick this up while in the "porter mood".

Poors a nice dark brown/black with a thin head. Very nutty sour milk smell with scents of coffee and chocolate. Taste is a nice bitter chocolate which you get with taste from start to finish. Very unique but good. Getting some hints of a barnyard with both the smell and taste which is not off putting. Almost some grain in the smell too. I enjoyed this one. Good job Deschutes.

Wow, this was horrible on tap at our local Applebee's. I have had it in bottle and was much better. What happened? Usually bottle is not as good as tap. This beer tasted bland and I could not tell if there was any hops in it at all. Hmmm, bad batch? Too old? Too new? Didn't taste green just really bland.

Pours a very dark color with ruby highlights shining around the edges topped by a thick foamy and kind of soapy tan head. Also saw some particles floating in there.

Smells like toasted bread with a faint hint of bitter chocolate in the background.

Taste is rich decadence of a nicely roasted beer. The bitter chocolate is in there somewhere cause I can find it on the back of the swallow.

Mouth feel is actually pretty light and has a clean finish.

Overall this beer is high class stuff that comes off the shelf at a bargain price. Love to pick up a 12 of this every now and than for me and the wife. The particles were interesting as I am far from the best buy date on the bottle and I don't believe this is bottle conditioned. If some one is worried about a dark beer being to heavy this would be a real shocker because it so light, tasty and refreshing. Had to pick some more up since I had not reviewed it when we have had it in the past. And I am damn happy I HAD to get some more just to review it :)

Poured dark with garnet red tinge. Limited temporary head, slight lacing.
Slight smell is sweet malt.
Taste is coffee with sweetish malt overtone and an almost indescribable green malt lingering aftertaste.
Mouth is watery thin, mild carbonation.
I am puzzled how some rave over this this beer.
I have a very favorite porter and I like several others.

Dark opaque color with creamy lined lacing. Smells of nuts, light coffee, cocoa, and dark malts. Taste is similar with stronger malt and some brown sugar. Goes down very easy with a rich but smooth body. Just a great porter.

Pours a very dark brown proper for the style - almost black, but illuminating a clearish ruby in the light. A rocky, fluffy light coffee-cream tan head forms and leaves behind sticky lacing as it falls to a thin covering.

Smells of coffee and cinnamon dominate the nose - it's a sweet coffee smell, not bitter, with a slight astringent alcohol presence.

The taste begins with a mild alcohol as well, which is swept away soon after by a kind of burnt brown sugar, coca-bean-husk flavor - followed immediately by a vague plum-skin fruitiness, almost Belgian in nature. It's an interesting flavored porter.

The mouthfeel is a little watery (even for a porter), and has a bit of carbonation tang that enhances the slight bite of alcohol.

This is an interesting porter; It's got a bit more bite than most, kind of jerking your taste buds around; It's got a lot of character, but the unfortunate part is that I've been having a very hard time deciding if I like its character or not. Half the flavors are tasty, the other half are astringent and tangy.

T: Subtlety sweet fruit surprises you at first with a blast of cherry, then chocolate and brown sugar flood the palate, follow by roasted malt and finished perfectly with a slightly grass like hop finish.

This beer pours a dark black stoutish color.
But not thick, somewhat watery.. though not as light as a newcastle.

The aroma and initial taste is very earthy.
The after taste is crisp and dry.

Maybe I'll have to try it from the tap instead.

I've had multiple bottles of this and I'm really suprised that some people adore this beer so much.

I havent had a porter that i've enjoyed as much as Sierra Nevada's
I'd love for someone to reccomend a superb porter.. though i find it hard to trust peers that have an affinity for beers such as this.

Pours a deep brown with ruby highlights thru out with a thin off white head that disapears into nothing quite fast,I noticed a few chunks swirling around in there as well.Aroma is nutty and unsweetened chocolate mainly not over the top sweet by any means,has a nice smooth mouthfeel this glides down very easily to say the least.Flavors start out somewhat sweet bitter chocolate and caramel with an underlying roasted coffee presence but finish very earthy and dry like an unroasted raw peanut flavor.A very solid beer this one is a classic in the northwest and I can see why,very solid.

Appearance  Very dark, almost black body with a nice, big tan head that held nicely and laced the glass.

Smell  Big coffee starts off this nose followed by good toasted malt. Theres also some chocolate, cherries, maple, and molasses.

Taste  This is very smooth. The coffee and milk chocolate blend evenly to form a chocolate latte flavor. The milkiness is huge in this porter. Theres also a very interesting hop balance that makes this beer exceptionally smooth and refreshing.

Mouthfeel  This is medium-bodied and very refreshing.

Drinkability  Is there such a thing as a porter session beer? If so, this is it.

Update  I decided to revisit some of the beers that I reviewed in 2003 for 2004 and included this since it is so easy to get around here.

I didnt find as much complexity in this beer the second time around. And now, after having reviewed 50 or so Porters on the site this one seemed a bit thin and watery for my tastes. I changed some of the scores accordingly and, overall, this one lost 0.3 on its overall score.